How to memorize a list in order

By the Without Notes team. Last checked 27 October 2026.

To memorize a list in order, put each item on a place you already know, in order, with a short scene in which the item does something to the place. To get the list back, walk the places in your head and say what is on each one.

The quickest set of places is your own body from the feet to the top of the head: ten places you already know, in an order you can’t mix up. Try the first five planets below.

Why is a list in order hard to remember?

Each item on its own is easy. What slips is the order: which item came third, and what came after the fifth. Reading the list again and again feels like learning, but it never shows you what you would recall with the page out of sight. To recall a list in order you need a hook for each item and a fixed path from one hook to the next.

The memory palace: one item per place

A memory palace provides both. The places are the hooks, and their order is the path. The method has been taught for more than 2,000 years for this job, and a 2022 study found that ten parts of the body, typed from feet to head, worked as well as a classical memory palace for recalling a list in order.

1. Choose ten places in a fixed order. On your body: feet, knees, thighs, hips, stomach, chest, shoulders, neck, face, top of head.
2. Put the first item on the first place by making it do something there: “MERCURY rolls over your feet like a silver ball.” A few plain words are enough.
3. Give each following item the next place, one item per place.
4. Look away and walk the places from memory, saying each item. Then check, and give a new scene to any item that didn’t come back.
5. Walk it again the next day and a few days later. Recalling something before you look at it again is one of the best-supported ways to learn, and spreading those recalls over several days works better than packing them into one sitting.

How to memorize a long list

Work ten items at a time. When the first ten come back easily, start a second set of places that follows on from the first, such as a walk you take every day (in one study, routes worked better than the inside of a house) or the rooms of your home, front door first. Keep each set in a fixed order and mark every fifth place so you never lose count, as the Rhetorica ad Herennium told Roman students to do with a golden hand.

The US presidents make five sets of ten. A long syllabus can take one room per part.

Other ways to remember a list

A sentence made from the first letters of the items suits a short list you already know and keep mixing up, such as the order of the planets, though it only gives you the first letters. A story that links each item to the next works for short lists, but one broken link loses everything after it, whereas with places a gap costs you a single item. Repeating the list aloud works in the end for short lists and fades without practice. Flashcards suit facts that stand alone; a deck has no order, so it is a poor fit for lists and steps.

What kinds of lists does this work for?

It works for anything where the order matters, such as the planets, rulers and presidents, the books of a long text, the cranial nerves and the steps of a procedure. It also works for exam topics in the order of the syllabus, the points of a talk or a pitch with one key word each, and lists for the day: errands, packing or shopping.

It helps less with names (practising recall works better), long numbers (they need a learned system first) and things you would look up anyway.

Memorize a list of your own with Without Notes

Without Notes starts on your body. After the free first lesson you can paste a list of your own. It puts the items on your places in order, five at a sitting for long lists, and you write each scene. It then checks you at 1, 7 and 30 days, unaided, so you see what stayed.

Questions

How many items can I remember this way?

As many as you have places for: ten on your body to start with, then more sets of ten in a fixed order.

What if I can’t remember one item?

Move to the next place and carry on, because the rest of the list is still there. Afterwards, look the item up and give it a new scene on the same place.

Can I memorize a list backwards?

Yes. Walk your body from the top of your head down to your feet.